CSBG Archive

Comic Theme Time Month – Best Final Issue of a Canceled Ongoing Series

All December long, I will be doing daily installments of Comic Theme Time. Comic Theme Time is a twist on the idea of a “Top Five” list. Instead of me stating a topic and then listing my top five choices in that topic, I’m giving you the topic and letting you go wild with examples that you think fit the theme.

Today’s topic is “what was the best final issue of a canceled ongoing series?”

There are two types of final issues of ongoing series – there’s the ones where the creators finished the book on their own terms (Preacher, Spectre, Sandman, Y the Last Man, etc.) and there are those where the creators have to come up with an ending for a series that has been canceled (whether due to low sales or a shift in the direction of the comic book company that makes the comic). The former has delivered a ton of great stories. The latter? Not so much.

Off the top of my head, I really liked Mark Waid and Ron Garney’s last issue of Captain America before Heroes Reborn and John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake’s final issue of Firestorm (plus Ostrander’s final Suicide Squad plus his final Martian Manhunter), but yeah, the pickings are not exactly great as a whole.

What is your pick for the best final issue of a canceled ongoing series?

Jon C

For me, it’s the last issue of Alan Davis’ run of Excalibur, after he’d returned to the title with issue 42, as its writer and artist. It was a run which saw massive character development for the team, and you could tell, with every issue, how much Alan Davis loved these characters.

His pages just oozed with the love. There was so much fun on his pages.

Sadly, his last issue was 67, of a two parter involving Phoenix, ‘Days of Future Yet to Come’ I think it was called. The actual last page was a horizontal pinup of his new Excalibur team, with Kylun and Cerise (2 new characters) firmly integrated. It was so sad.

Why was his run cut? Because Marvel wanted to bring it closer to the X-Men books, this around the Avengers/X-Men ‘Fatal Attractions’ storyline with those holographic covers. Issue 68 basically gutted everything Alan Davis set up. It was awful; and the issues that followed that unbearable (I’d dropped the title after 67, but would browse the others in the shop).

P-Tricky

I’ve heard conflicting reports on whether it was an ongoing or not, but the last issue of Automatic Kafka was pretty cool. Joe Casey and Ashley Wood come in to the story to tell the protagonist his book was being cancelled because it wasn’t mainstream enough.

Also, Alan Davis’ Excalibur was the high point of the book. Only Warren Ellis made it salvageable to read later for a short while.

rookie

It was oddly the right place to stop it. Stalker had confronted the demon & found out what he needed to do to get his soul back, so it ended on a hopeful note, but had it continued it would have been a case of “Stalker finds & kills demon worshippers, rinse & repeat”, so while the story is incomplete, it feels like it is complete enough. In a way I think of the four issues of Stalker as the first Miniseries.

Faust

I really enjoyed the final issue resolution of the 90’s REBELS series. There was a great cliffhanger in the penultimate issue where Vril shoots Stealth, and I was like – oh my god! haha… And then everything got tied up in the last issue. Great series.

Cable/Deadpool 50.
wade decides that instead of glory that he’s rather spend his celebration of saving the city with his extended family.
it was a great step forward for wade before Dan Way turned the character into a lame ass fart joke machine

Will

Aside from that one, Warren Ellis’s final issue of Druid is one of most bitter, cynical things I’ve ever read, and I love it. I loved the final page of Joe Casey’s Wildcats 3.0 as well. Peter David’s Fallen Angel #20 was really well done, though it eventually came back at IDW.

emeraldknight

I really enjoyed the ending to Batgirl Volume 3 by Bryan Q. Miller. That final issue celebrated everything Batgirl. It was fun, funny, heartbreaking, and giving us all a glimpse of what could have been. It was a series that, in my opinion, went out with a bang rather than with a whimper. The issue also left on a high note, giving a sense of completion, rather than ending with a cliffhanger. It was one of the better ending issues I read in a while.

I don’t know if it was a planned finale or a cancellation, but if it’s legit then I vote for Spectacular Spider-Man,/i> #27. Not only a last issue for the series, it was also Paul Jenkins farewell from the character after five years (before that was a lengthy run on Peter Parker: Spider-Man). Jenkins had some pitfalls over time, but when he was good, I highly enjoyed his work on Spidey. But most of all, #27 was a beautiful story starring Peter and May having a nice walk on memory lane. Oh, and it was also Mark Buckingham’s return to say goodbye too, a few years after leaving Peter Parker.

Brud

There were a number of good stories that came from DC this year leading into the reboot/relaunch. Secret Six was one of the best books I’ve read, ever. Robinson’s final Justice League reminded me of the best of his Starman work, with flashbacks to stories never told.

While a bit rushed, I always felt that the final issues of both New Titans (#130) and Deathstroke (#60?) in the mid-1990s were done pretty well. Marv Wolfman was frustrated and fed up with the direction the title had taken as well as his editors, so he more or less quit, but did get the chance to tell a last story his way. Deathstroke more or less quitting and walking away from everything was a great way to end that series and restoring the Titans’ status quo (or at least giving everyone a happy ending of sorts) was a decent way to end a nearly unbroken sixteen-year run on the characters.

Scott Harris

Sandman Mystery Theatre #70 was wonderful. I’d also like to mention Ghost Rider #81. Good stuff. Atari Force #20 and ROM #75 were both great as well, though it’s a little unclear just why those series ended; it might have been by design.

T.

If planned endings on the creators own terms tend to be good and abrupt endings forced by cancellations tend to be bad, I’d be interested to see a companion list to this one of planned endings on the creators’ own terms that still ended up being horrible.

I’d like to add my support for the final issue of New Titans. The story wasn;t much to write home about, but Rick Mays’ art on it was phenomenal.

“Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow?”, if it counts, may win the prize here.

I second the ending to BATGIRL by Bryan Miller. That was a great ending to Stephanie’s run.

I also quite liked Chris Roberson’s final SUPERMAN this past year. He closed out the “Walking Across America” arc with style, but also put a final coda on the Superman mythos.

YOUNG JUSTICE, with Peter David and Todd Nauck, was quite nice. Secret became human and Conner and Cassie finally kissed.

TEEN TITANS, first series, had a nice finale, by Bob Rozakis, where we learn how the team initially formed. He also ret-conned Speedy as a founding member in that same issue. The story was bookended by Bumblebee and Mal reading that first case– and in the final page, the team breaks up and bids a final goodbye. And Speedy cries a man tear.

Nth Man went wild once it realized it was being cancelled, jumping forward a year and onto the other side of an apocalypse. It was very “Wait, what?” for me at the time but I still remember it fondly. Nostalgia, what ho!

Josh

It’s been decades since I read it but the last issue of Man Thing Vol. 2 had Chris Claremont and Doctor Strange die, come back to life, Claremont turn into Man Thing, kill the devil, and have Jim Shooter look confused over the story.

On my blog, I do a week of last issues this time every year: “The End” week. Some of them are a bit weak–you aren’t going to get a lot of closure on Iron Man’s ‘last’ issue, it’s just the last one until the next one. Or they’re trying to put the toys back in the box, or set up another first issue…

The final story arc of Thor volume 2 was an amazing send-off for the character, written by Michael Oeming and penciled by Andrea DiVito. It was accessible to newer readers but had lots of little easter eggs for long-time fans, and saw Thor finally reach his potential.

I also wanted to give a shout-out to Dan Slott’s Thing series; it was canceled after only 8 issues but was it ever a fun title with gorgeous art. It was a real shame Marvel canceled it.

Ryan

HammerHeart

I agree that the “endings” to Superman, Captain America and the likes shouldn’t count because those series were merely renumbered. Don’t get me wrong, “Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow” was one of the best Superman stories of all time, but that series was not actually cancelled. It was just a “very special episode” before the series was handed over to someone else. But that’s just my opinion.

Adam Warren’s Gen13 series ended with a bang, really moving stuff. I also liked the ending of X-Statix, where the “heroes” met a fate as hollow and pointless as the celebrity lives they had led. But I think my favorite series ending ever was Garth Ennis’ Hitman; I don’t think I’ll ever be able to read that last issue and NOT be moved.

And I loved Secret Six, but to be honest I was rather disappointed by the series’ finale – after all that build-up and “the stakes have never been higher!” and “we’d rather die than get arrested!”, the final battle was laughably brief and uneventful. Since they were rebooting everything anyway it would’ve been nice to see SOMEone actually getting killed in that supposedly Very Serious Showdown, but as it turned out it was a lot of noise and fury signifying very little. Instead of the bloody showdown that the whole issue promised we got a load of chest-thumping and boasts of badassery that were never verified, like the Six were a bunch of schoolkids posing as gangstas and acting tough to impress each other. It was probably one of that series’ weakest issues.

Jonesy Stark

Edo Bosnar

@Mark: that last issue of Man-Thing v. 2 is pretty good, but it’s actually kind of a send-up of the last issue of v. 1 (#22) by Steve Gerber, which is the better story.
Besides that, I’d suggest the last, fifth issue of Ragman before the DC implosion, and the last (again fifth) issue of Black Goliath, simply because it was such a nice story and change of pace from the previous four issues (which usually had BG getting beaten or otherwise humiliated by the bad guy).
Perhaps the best I can think of, though, is the last issue of Amazing Adventures (#39), which closes off the original run of Killraven – great story by McGregor, beautifully drawn by Russell.

b2quared

A lot of the good ones are already mentioned. I’m going to throw out another most people will disagree with, but:

Justice League of America (Robinson’s last issue).

Remember it? It had serious emotional impact, and it played the meta-message of the coming reboot with grace and wit. Not to mention several beautiful full-page spreads with some great concepts that made me wish we could see more of the run, despite not enjoying it a terrible amount. And that last convo between DIck and Donna… I have to say it actually made me well up just a little.

I’ll also second the last issue of David’s Supergirl.

Jeff R.

I’m not really sure if either of the Ostrander books in the OP completely count: in both cases, there was considerably more warning than usual allowing several ‘grace’ issues to wrap up the stories, in one case to allow the book to reach the #100 milestone and in the other just out of courtisey. On the other hand, the last issue of Wasteland certainly should count here.

While I don’t remember anything particularly special about it, just the fact that it was drawn by Zulli is going to make the last issue of Puma Blues stand proudly alongside anything else we’re coming up with here.

The ending of Omega Men was also some good.

Billy Bissette

I can’t give credit to Secret Six. The last issue was okay at best, but the final arc itself was too forced and rushed.

I guess Simone believed the claims that DCnU was not a reboot, as it was all too obvious that she was trying to reset the characters for the next writer that might pick them up. That itself is a technique that can be either good or bad. Here, I think it was bad as the Secret Six stuff shouldn’t be so easily swept under the rug. But it was also ultimately pointless as well, as DCnU was a messed up half-reboot/half-relaunch where prior character statuses have been ignored/rewritten as desired. Simone didn’t have to do a contrived and rushed plan to revert Bane back to plain villain status, to break up the team, or any of the rest. (Heck, King Shark turned into a different kind of shark in DCnU.)

BitBiteOuch

J

Although they led into “The Thanos Imperative” and Marvel only claimed that the books were “on hiatus” or something like that (but it’s pretty obvious they were cancelled), I thought DnA did a nice job wrapping up their “Nova” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” series with a nice mix of action and poignant parting words.

Ed (A Different One)

Man, I’d like to see this post a year from now, after Aaron has wrapped up both Scalped and PunisherMax. I have high hopes for both conclusions (though the sudden absence of Scalped from my monthly pull list will leave me a very sad person indeed).

Personnaly, I thought the ending of Ex Machina was outstanding. Brian K. Vaughan has a knack for writing endings that are very challenging to the reader. They are not the satisfying “happier ever after” that we’ve grown up used to seeing. I thought it was brilliant that the protagonist (whose name, quite frankly, escapes me now) was capable of defeating the “external evil” (the aliens trying to take over our world) but was an utter failure at defeating the “internal evil” (the corrupting effects of power, especially as it manifests itself in our own political system). Good stuff there.

Morten

G.i.Joe first run, the devils due end was also quite neat.
The end of the recent Moon Knight series before Shadowland, was the best issue of the volume.
PAD’s last Hulk issue.
and i’m rather fond of the last starbrand issue.

JoeMac307

I can’t believe someone mentioned Nth Man. I loved that comic as a kid.

The finale to Batgirl was awesome.

Secret Six, not so much.

And when people bring up titles like Y the Last Man and Sandman, it makes me wonder if they bother to read what Brian writes… or even look at the title of the post. Cancelled Ongoing Series… whereas Y the Last Man and Sandman were not cancelled, they were ended by the creators.

To Jon C. (all the way back up at the top of the comments!): I am really happy to hear you give so much praise to that Davis run. When I was a kid, I loved the Claremont/Davis run from a few years before, so I just started ordering the Davis (by himself) stuff they put out in the Marvel Visionaries line. The first volume just arrived on Christmas, so I’m really excited to break it open.

rookie

Third Man

Wouldn’t Amazing Fantasy #15 be the best? Perhaps people are counting that as cancelled by the creators, or maybe anthologies don’t count.

I thought Avengers #402 was a really strong issue by Waid and Deodato, with the team fighting Onslaught’s minions.

And the last issues of the pre-Heroes Reborn Marvel titles absolutely count in this argument. Those titles weren’t just renumbered. The creators were kicked off of them with very little notice, and the characters were rebooted in an alternate universe. If you’re counting any pre-New 52 DC last issues, then you have to count the pre-Heroes Reborn Marvel last issues.

I’m also surprised no one has mentioned Aztek #10, where he joins the JLA, or Marvel Team-Up #150, with Spidey and the New Mutants taking on Juggernaut.

And lastly, I thought Mark Millar wrote a nice ending to Swamp Thing with #171, which was absolutely cancelled due to low sales, but the ending was so good that it felt like it was done through creator choice.

MarkAndrew

I’ll be the sole voice in the wilderness to suggest Micronauts: the New Voyages # 20. I hate that Marvel later brought the (non-licenced) characters back without so much as a throwaway line to explain their return.

“There was an explanation, Zirbert, but it was in a completely random issue of Peter David’s Captain Marvel.”

Thanks for the info! I must seek this out. I don’t care how contrived or utterly contemptous it may be (and coming from PAD, it could be pretty irreverent), I need to know.

And I was so concerned with getting the Micros mentioned that I forgot – if Hitman # 60 counts, then it’s the best ever, hands down, no more calls – we have a winner. However, if memory serves, Ennis chose to wrap up the book, so it doesn’t meet the criteria.

Michael P

I dunno if I’d call it “irreverent,” Zirbert, but it does contain one of my favorite Marvel moments of all time: A back-issue recap to a story that Marvel never published, and that was actually made up by David on the spot. It even had a little asterisk/caption box saying, “Don’t look for this comic, it doesn’t exist.” The implication being that crazy-ass stuff happens in the Marvel Universe *all the time* that we never know about, because it doesn’t show up in the comics.

The issue is Captain Marvel #6 (of the first series David did, not the one where Genis went crazy.)

Cass

I dug the last issue of the original Unknown Soldier. Every comic should end with the protagonist killing Hitler.

Wow, is that really how it ends? That adds some context to Dysart’s (awesome) wrap-up of the latest Unknown Soldier, wherein the hero dreams he completes his mission to kill the real-life dictator of Uganda. Is the Hitler assassination in the original also a dream, or was it actually canon for a period?

Matthew Johnson

Cable & Deadpool #50. While the issue itself was merely very good (seeing Wade team up with the Mighty Avengers and other heroes to thwart dino-symbiotes he inadvertently unleashed upon Manhattan), the last few panels were wonderful, showing how much the character of Deadpool actually grew as a person in a parallel of the first issue.

And then of course all that was swept under the rug by Daniel Way. Sigh.

John Trumbull

I’d say the last issue of James Robinson’s Starman was pretty great. I still miss reading about Jack Knight, but he had such an appropriate finish that I’d hate to see it overturned. I’d still love to read an untold tale or two, though…

I second the above suggestion for Tomb of Dracula #70. I wish that other creators had left well enough alone for those characters.

I was pretty impressed with the last issue of Ex Machina earlier this year. It may not have been the ending I was hoping for for certain characters, but it was pretty unforgettable.

I have to give it Batgirl #24 by Bryan Q. Miller. It managed to bring the current story arc to a close and provide a glimpse at what the writer had planned in a series of splash pages. It also provided a lovely moment between Stephanie and Barbara Gordon (with out winking at the reader about the handoff) and ended on an upbeat note.

Will Y.

Gotta agree with Jay B. The last issue of Slott’s The Thing was great. It wasn’t earthshaking, just a fun story about a superhero poker tournament. Thinking back, it’s kind of funny how Marvel released a comic with dozens of their heroes just chilling out, having a good time right around the time they were gearing up for Civil War.

Harpo

Maybe not a classic, but I really enjoyed the most recent “last” issue of Doom Patrol. And while not technically a cancelled series ending, the wrap-up to the original Starlin Warlock story (he travels thru time, captures his own soul and ultimately ends up in the soul gem with all of his friends and enemies) was always a favorite.

brak

I’m going to have to go with the last issue of Psi-force from Marvels New Universe. Not only did the series tie up its loose ends before the whole line went under, but it really was a comic ahead of its time. You can definately see that it did what books like X-force, secret avengers, and even some popular wildstorm books became famous for years before any of them were thought of. The whole 2nd half of that series was a pretty wild ride

Blackjak

PanRains

My favorite hands down is Suicide Squad #66. Amanda Waller’s “death touch”, Deadshot’s walk through the mystic jungle, and of course the final two pages – a faceoff of sorts between Deadshot and Count Vertigo – which Brian discussed here:

DanCJ

And lastly, I thought Mark Millar wrote a nice ending to Swamp Thing with #171, which was absolutely cancelled due to low sales, but the ending was so good that it felt like it was done through creator choice.

That barely counts. The comic was ending due to low sales, but I think Mark Millar finished his planned run, so he got to take it to it’s planned conclusion.

Oh and John Trumbull – Starman and Ex Machina weren’t cancelled. They ended were they were supposed to.

Travis Pelkie

I think Third Man wins with the mention of Amazing Fantasy 15, although does anyone know what else was in that issue?

And yes, I know it doesn’t fit under what we’re specifically talking about since it was probably the first planned end of a long running series, but Cerebus 300 is an amazing, chilling ending for those of us who stuck around for the end of that. So good.

Michael M Jones

Just to be perverse, I’ll bring up the ending to Sovereign Seven, in which the entire series and the characters within were essentially revealed to be a dream or a story or whatever. All this after tying in the mainstream DCU and the Legion of Superheroes. Heh.

Kwinn

E. Hobbs

BATMAN Adventures #60 The 1st SERIES from the Show.( For kids but timeless stories for me).
It was the last in the series and worth reading, at the time the best Batman being printed. Due to the broken Batman story line. Just the happy ending I always dreamed about as a little boy. Great theme , looking up most of these issues reported ( Nth Man too) this New Year’s week end.

danjack

i really liked the three issue finale of ‘The Batman Adventures’ #34-36. Batman loses his memory & is reverted in mind to a time just before his parents die. Robin & Alfred have to cope with a 7-year old who likes playing Batman, but isn’t very good at it, as his attention span is what you’d expect out of a 7-year old boy who dresses up like Batman.

Catwoman is in the mix as well, exploiting the situation to her advantage by teaming up with Batman. Watch for the dialogue between the two as Batman’s core beliefs come to the surface. The whole story is very strong.

WackyWally

As The Mutt already mentioned Hitman #60 was a solid END!! Just Picked up the Tommy’s Heroes TP collecting 15 issues of this long ignored series… up to #36. The entirety will be collected by August. A must read for any Ennis fans.

Ganky

Steve Engleheart’s “Coyote” ended with its 16th issue (after many asides and joking threats to do so), with Coyote impersonating Ronald Reagan at nuclear peace talks and bandying loose words with Gorbachev with Venusians, Hashishin Djinn, a giant talking crow and more. On the last page it says “James Bond is problematical, but Coyote will return!” I think this was in the time after the last Roger Moore Bond pic but before the next guy (was it Timothy Dalton?) appeared a few years later. Sadly, many lame Bond films appeared since, along with a few good ones, but that wily desert trickster never did return except in reprints.

What about the very final issue of the original Unknown Soldier, #268, by Bob Haney, Dick Ayers & Gerry Talaoc, topped by a spooky Joe Kubert cover? The book’s supporting cast all get killed during the final assault against Berlin in late April 1945, the Soldier infiltrates Hitler’s bunker, assassinates Der Fueher, prevents the release of the Naz’si doomsday army of giant vampire octopi, and then apparently dies saving a young girl from a bomb blast on the streets of Berlin!

comicsmakenosense

phred

Liked the end of GI Joe. Glad somebody mentioned the of Peter David’s Captain Marvel. Peter Davids name has cropped up a few times on this list, so I’ll add that his ending for “Spider-Man 2099′ was pretty decent.

Liked the end of Hitman, I was never quite sure it was cancelled it was done so neatly.

I have a soft spot for characters dying when they get cancelled.

There has to be a Christopher Priest joke in this topic somehow, but I can’t think of one off the bat.